The Magpie

Solicitor Barry Taylor’s Former Business Mate Gets Two And A Half Years In The Jug

Labor influencer Wayne Myers getting jail time for his role in the Ipswich corruption scandal must be embarrassing for Big Bazza Taylor, the world’s most touchy solicitor when it comes to his business dealings. Mind you, Taylor did no wrong when he teamed up briefly with Myers in Townsville more than a decade ago, but unfair perceptions of ‘guilt by association’ may be about to get worse for our much loved legal foghorn.

Our receding floodwaters have revealed some home truths about the cupidity of our council, and the fallacy of the Bulletin’s tub-thumping agenda.

Do you reckon that her call for a Qantas boycott was our mayor’s finest hour? Well, now the she who would be the Battler’s Boedicia has gone one better – threatening insurance companies with a big stick, which may well end with a more damaging push back than the Qantas call.

But spite of all our tribulations, love was in the air during the week, when we endured that annual dork fest of bad poetry and unrequited lust known as Valentine’s Day … and this year, animals got in on the act … no no, you grubby lot, not like that, they just played it for laughs.

But first …

Getting Even

Since India’s gift to the desecration of Australian native bird life is the unpleasant Indian Mynah, somehow it seems only fair it is a native Aussie bird that is now taking it’s revenge on an unpleasant Indian miner.

The row over the state government’s somewhat clunky internal factional power play about the protection of the Black Throated Finch habitat – which is apparently threatened by the Adani Carmichael mine project – is a right old knicker twister. The Astonisher iditor Jenna Cairney’s dainties have taken a hell of a contortion, forcing her yet again into unintended humour.

First we had two News Corpse journos – in the same edition of the paper – making exactly opposing claims about the birds. One, The Astonisher’s John Andersen, who knows about these things being a straight down the line bushie, quoted some of his widespread old timer country contacts that the bloody bird was everywhere, always had been, not just near the mine site. In the very same edition, the Astonisher had lifted a piece by tired old Courier Mail click-baiter Des Houghton trying it on that the bird would become extinct, killed off by feral animals (cats and pigs apparently) if the Adani land set aside for its protection area DID NOT PROCEED. Ando is the far more believable in this face-off, rather than the Alan Jones-Lite Houghton, who didn’t explain how the dreaded cats and pigs would be kept out of the protection area – signage perhaps?.

The finch has become our own native Scarlet Pimpernel:

They seek him here, they seek him there,

Those pollies seek him everywhere,

Journos seek him near, they seek him far,

Under sun and under star,

They try so hard, but they try in vain,

For he eludes them yet again.

But Bentley was there to record a meeting between avian cousins to solve the mystery.

Then enter the obviously discombobulated Astonisher iditor Jenna Cairney, the very same Jenna who gave a good laugh in a recent iditorial when she insisted the Bulletin only did ‘fair and balanced reporting’. Deputy Premier The Treacherous Trad came to town to talk about flood recovery measures during the week, asking what could be best done for the victims, but the Astonisher wanted to talk about the Black Throated Finch. Trad swatted away a few weak attempts to engage on the matter, somehow judging that the government’s flood recovery measures were surely the overriding topic of the moment. Boy, didn’t that make Jenna stampn her feet in rage, she saw red, and fired off a blistering iditorial, suggesting, (topically if unfortunately), that we were being ‘sold down the river’ … which is where a fair amount of Townsville ended just a few days ago. But then, right in the middle of this foot stamping tantrum, this little thigh slapper popped up from nowhere.

A moment,please (gasp, wheeze, splutter… ahem, sorry.) Leaving aside the absurdity of this virtue-signaling boast, this twaddle comes from an iditor who wagged a finger at those who have had the temerity to raise questions about the handling of the flood emergency.

Even your southern betters aren’t buying that one … they can apparently walk and chew gum at the same time, handling more than one story at once – here’s just one instance from the Courier.

Here’s a newsflash, dearie … the days of outfits like the Bulletin being the gatekeepers of information are long gone, and you no longer set the news agenda.

Some Say The Council Over The Years Has Had A Lack Of Vision

Any inquiry into the handling of the flood is should not be restricted to just recent events themselves, but should surely delve back into council building policy and approvals over many years, to see why so many inappropriately designed structures, both private and commercial, were allowed to be built on clearly identified flood plains.

A Nest read sent is a photo that might help explain the problem … he believes this is the TCC building where these decisions were made.

Mayor Mullet Jumps On The Boycott Bandwagon … Again

Ms Cairney, under your newly announced ‘tough question’ policy, any chance of asking Mayor Mullet about her bogan bluster that if insurance companies use ‘southern’ tradies to do repair work in Townsville, she will ‘name and shame them’.

Even your own reporter, Clare Armstrong (the soon to join the Sydney Telegraph), described this piece of electoral grandstanding as ‘extraordinary’.

‘Embarrassing empty threat’ might have been just as apt. Talk about Qantas boycott redux … this implicitly means that your paper, Jenna, will have to be the mayor’s bully pulpit in this naming and shaming exercise of companies that are major News advertisers, going about their legal business funded by shareholders, and who couldn’t give a fig about Mayor Mullet and her barroom style bluster. You OK with that? Or is there the odd ‘tough question’ you might like to ask your pal the mayor?

Naming and shaming? The bottom line, if it is followed logically, is that Mayor Jenny Hill is on the boycott bandwagon again, threatening to call for a boycott of companies who legally, if not morally, use outside tradies for whatever reason (like legally binding existing contractual arrangements).

Given her ‘shoot from the lip’ bravado over several issues recently, Mayor Mullet’s ‘big stick’ is in reality a squizzle stick: she must have quite a supply of used lying about.

And You Can Add Casual Racism To Her CV, Too

Another shoot from the lip, when talking about the two blokes who drowned while ruinning from the police.

‘You can’t pick your family members’? What the hell does that mean? Judge Jenny at her best. Sorry, what was that? Oh, yeah, right, forgot, Palm Islanders don’t have a vote in Townsville local elections

Well, remember, all you other folks, you can choose your mayor soon, up to you.

Ghosts Of Mates Past Coming Back To Haunt Bazza Taylor

Big Bazza Taylor

As reported here recently, solicitor Barry Taylor was once briefly in business in Townsville with convicted briber Wayne Myers.

During the week, Chief Judge Kerry O’Brien gave Myers two and a half years in chokey, to be suspended after six months, for ‘greasing the wheels’ of corruption with council and contractor officials in Ipswich.

As reported here recently, back in the early 2000s, Myers and Taylor tried to start a local teleco company with the council, with Barry charged with roping in local bizoids to pony up $20k each for the venture. The then Mayor Tony Mooney saw the scheme was a financial rip-off, and knocked it on the head.

While he’s living down that little episode, Bazza now waits to see how big will be the embarrassment of another of his erstwhile ‘clients’, Craig Gore. The question here is which will be the biggest embarrassment …, Gore refusing to keep his promise to return from Sweden to face trial on multiple fraud charges, (how he was allowed to go only God and a Brisbane judge know), or if he does show up (ring Tab Extreme Bets for the odds on that), is found guilty and cops an expected dozen or more years for his grubby rip-offs.

Gore was squired around town by Bazza also in the 2000s, while the shyster was spruiking the completely impossible canal estate scheme in front of the casino. To the best of The ‘Pie’s knowledge, Taylor had no stake in the venture – Gore was only here for a short visit – but if Bazza had any sense of shame, he would’ve been red faced when all that turned to highly questionable shit. Probably not, since he only hosted the grub to brown-nose his Labor pals in Brisbane.

Wonder if Baz will lead the defence in the unlikely event that Gore does return. Probably not, not at Baz’s prices.

Puppy Love

It was Valentines Day during the week, and public mawkishness was all around, it was unavoidable. But then The ’Pie discovered that zoos around the world –they all regularly stay in touch to talk shop – had decided that their animals had been left out of the annual love fest long enough. From San Diego to Sydney, to London and all points around the globe, this was the very punny result.

Let’s get straight to the point … anyone want a shag?

‘Stop! You’re making me tawny!

‘Talk birdy to me.’

‘So glad we could support each other on this day, because as they say … love is a cattlefield.’

‘Of course I mean it! I’d love you to the baboon and back.’

‘Alpaca my bags.”

‘May our love never tapir off.’

‘Seal-iously, we think you’re all keepers.”

A Warning Sign In These Trouble Financial Times

And our gallery of the week from Trumpistan

Finally …

The ‘Pie normally likes to leave you laughing with a parting joke, but let’s break from that rule this week, and ask you to think about this … emotive tweets rarely penetrate the Magpie necessary cynicism , but, perhaps because he the father of a daughter, this one hit home for the old bird. Simply but shatteringly highlights the horror of being a school kid America, and the damage being done to an entire generation. It also shows why we are a far saner and safer society, natural disasters and all, here in Australia.

A mother in Delaware tweeted this during the week.

So my kids school had a genuine lockdown today. Some whack job called in a bomb threat

Police came and everything was fine, Thank God!

My guys seemed fine when they got home and they talked about it with me, and told me their versions of what happened and then went right into their homework and normal after school stuff, and all seemed fine.

It wasn’t until later when Vanessa was changing out of her school uniform that I saw this on her arm….

I say to her, why did you write that on your arm? She says, in case the bad guy got to us and I got killed, you and daddy would know that I love you, and she started to cry (as did I as I watched a little piece of her innocence get stolen away)

To know that my 7yo was put in a position to think that thought is absolutely gut wrenching and it’s killing me inside. It’s now been a couple hours, and I can’t seem to shake this awful feeling, feeling of sadness, fear, and plain disgusts for this new ‘normal’ our kids have to deal with on any given day…..it’s a very scary and disturbing society we now live in, and it’s heartbreaking

It certainly is. What have they wrought? It’s unfathomable.

………………..

A tumultuous week gone, and all The Magpie’s thoughts to those getting their life back together. Have your say about anything on the blog comments, they run 24/7.

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There must be a new category of human being that Jenny Hill belongs to, some sort of breed of person that holds no connection to her fellow human beings whatsoever, just totally consumed by her position in life and damn anyone or anything that may threaten that.

Here is a news flash for you Mullet, there aren’t enough tradies and contractors in Townsville to do even half the work that’s required, so unless you want people to have to wait years to get back into their homes, the bulk of the work will have to be done by people who aren’t from this town. Last week I met onsite a crew from Sydney who will be gutting a property in Hermit Park in a few weeks time, and my own home commences tomorrow, with another southern building company who will be in and out of here in 4 days, so fuck off and mind your own business Jenny Hill, maybe think about doing something that is within your scope of responsibility, like working out what the TCC is going to do with all the stuff on the footpaths that isn’t flood damaged or full of rotting food that won’t be collected by the ADF.

While not wanting (ever) to support Jenny Hill, let me tell a cautionary tale.

A major local operation is looking at a significant (IMHO $1.5 – $3M) recovery from the floods. They have engaged local contractors, engineers, remediators, and project managers and seem to be cracking on. Mid last week their Sydney? based insurance loss adjuster arrived on site with his Sydney-based builder/engineer mate and tried to summarily sack the locals already working on the project.

I understand that only strongly worded (probably threatening is not too strong a word) conversations between the local owners and insurer’s head office managed to get these parasites off site and off looking for other soft targets.

Kudos to the local owners and managers who showed the intestinal fortitude to stand up, even if they have potentially damaged the relationship with the people who hold their financial future in the balance. Others may not be so lucky.

Just a thought on mullett’s ridiculous name an shame bluster… How long until she has to name and shame her own council? I can guarantee there will be south east Queenslanders working for her organisation to get things on track. There is no way, with the extensive damage on buildings and infrastructure, that it can all be taken care of by northerners… It would take five years, to say nothing of the specialists we don’t have.

The Mullet really does get around with one foot stuck firmly in her mouth.
Naming and shaming insurance companies using southern tradies.
This leaves me scratching my head and wondering why so many council contracts have gone to southern firms despite the Mullet harping on about a buy Townsville policy for council in her election campaign. And while we’re at it most of the executive now employed at council are not from Townsville or even Queensland and don’t own property here.
The Mullet is getting a bit old. The hipocracy is stinking more than usual

One would like to be a fly on the wall at the next LGAQ board meeting, when she is queried about not sticking up for the LGAQ’s favourite little earner Local Buy, which is entirely based on councils selecting contractors from anywhere in Queensland.

Pie if you remember her skwarking on during the election campaign she was going to Buy Townsville. Maybe i misinterpreted this and the intention was to devalue the place so much she could actually buy it. But I had thought it was a policy to promote council purchasing from Townsville businesses. Which as we know hasn’t happened

… wearing her invisible LGAQ cloak, Jenny pulled the wool over our eyes with the Association’s carefully designed deception using the words Local and Buy. It had the added bonus for her and Association supremo Greg Hallam that when it appeared in the Astonisher as Local Buy, everyone just figured it was yet another of the paper’s cock-ups and was in fact a call to buy locally. It was anything but. And that outfit called Propel deserves close monitoring, it could be more detrimental to local community interests than the Local Buy rort. It’s activities at the Liverpool Council in NSW under the newly minted Ipswich jailbird Wulff has already been put before the NSW ICAC, after it was engineered into the council by Wulff mate, that poisoned political dwarf Jim Soorley.

Jenny will easily win next election. Looking forward to some of you whiners running against her. Magpie, throw your beak into the ring. You too Grumpy. Get a Magpie team together. The Ruffled Feathers Party. Cantankerous, you could be Media Manager.
I can see our Mayor trembling in her gumboots.

I’m so glad you print this magpie. Still think it’s not doolan commenting? It will make it so much better when the mayor is cleaning out her office and we can all repost this in March next year lol. I will personally be outside Walker street with my sign letting her know which way the exits of townsville are next year. Shes obviously reading, but I’ve noticed shes not answering certain things especially on Facebook when her name is tagged. Wow what a surprise!!!!

Also, quite frankly, The ‘Pie doesn’t think it is Dolan commenting … while he probably has the occasional read, he probably couldn’t be bothered jousting around on such a small, pissant annoyance as this blog.

Now, now Pie, don’t be too hard on Dolan. After all he is in danger of losing his main source of income.
Given the number of letters to the editor being published showering praise on the mayor for her handling of the flood disaster, the Townsville Bulletin, or at least editor Jenna Cairney, is now collecting much of the dosh the Mullet (actually we ratepayers) pays for PR.
On Saturday there was a full colour TCC ad in the expensive early news pages of the Astonisher. It was an ad calling for tenders, like the ones published in black and white by all other councils, except they put them in the much cheaper classifieds section (where businesses look for them).
This is by no means an isolated case. TCC full colour ads appear in the Astonisher almost on a daily basis, and sometimes 2 or 3 a day.
That’s a heap of advertising dollars for the Astonisher, and good reason to give the Mullet not only protection from questioning (and the okay to hide behind “a TCC spokesman” on negative matters) but an ongoing PR campaign in letters to the editor and text the editor.
Our only hope of finding out what went on in the Disastrous Committee meetings is the possible class action currently being assessed by Slater and Gordon. Don’t think they will be satisfied to question a TCC spokesperson in a court of law.
Anna Alphabet’s “review”, as opposed to a “official inquiry”, won’t go anywhere near who was responsible for the mishandling of water release from the dam.
On that note, I’ve heard a suggestion that the dam gates were fully opened 90 minutes before the 8pm we were warned about.
It has also been suggested that the Mullet tried to get Sunwater to announce the bad news, but they wouldn’t have a bar of that. Something to do with not being to blame for the debacle.

Two things… you are sadly deluded if you think the Mullet, the council or TEL are the major clients of Dolan’s Empower outfit … he plays with the big boys down south on several fronts, and picks up pin money from the aforementioned. Interesting to note that the ‘Pie has been unreliably told he and the missus, now presumably empty nesters, have decided to sell their Wulguru home and move to an apartment closer to town … which naturally, is closer to Walker Street. Well, it is a year out from the council elections, and someone is gunna need all the help Dolan can offer.

And on the matter of advertising … the multi-billion dollar News Corpse empire is a generous crowd … up to a point. The ‘Pie would like to know what the advertising rate was for the expensive wrap-round this weekend detailing all things flood. The Astonisher honked on that a full 25% (wow!!) of the advertising revenue from the wrap – with ads from big players like Woolies etc would go to flood relief. Just wonder if that advertising special rate just happened to carry a premium of 25% extra for limited spots? Nah, they wouldn’t do that? Would they?

Anyway, since the paper’s All For You, why not be so literally … like 100% … it can be written off by entities like News for big tax savings.

You don’t want to listen to every “suggestion” you hear, Long John Silver. Some might be rubbish.

I live on the riverbank 2 kms below the dam. As such I maintained a very keen interest in water levels on Sunday 3 February.

I know exactly when gates were opened, as the water level in the river would rise several meters in my back yard within a minute or so of that happening.

I also tracked the water level in the lake above the dam, using the BOM water level data on the BOM site that was updated every few minutes at the critical time.

I can confirm that the Emergency Action Plan was followed to the letter. Within a minute or so of the water level reaching a new threshold as per the table on page 143 of the plan, the gate(s) would open and the river level would go up.

The gates were fully opened when the lake level reached 43 meter AHD a few minutes after 8pm on the Sunday night.

I would infer that decisions on when to open gates were not made by the disaster committee on the day, but by whoever approved the EAP several years ago.

I have read all the comments on here and elsewhere on the internet and remain confused as to the science behind the opening of the gates. I look forward to the inevitable enquiry into the whole management of the disaster. Given the extent of the massive property losses and the persistent allegations of mismanagement, an enquiry there surely must be.

I have no doubt your personal observations are accurate, Westie. I also hear what you say about the releases all being in strict accordance with the EAP. However, what concerns me is whether the EAP contemplated the unprecedented deluge that we experienced and whether an unquestioning adherence to the plan was prudent, given the unique conditions. This begs the question of whether there was sufficient experience in the management committee to be able to recognise the fundamental change in the premises on which the “opening table” was formulated and, further, whether someone in that group had the leadership qualities, initiative and courage to act outside the EAP.

I might note that the predictions by the BOM were consistently accurate. We had plenty of warning that something wet this way comes – at least a week’s notice from memory. I have the impression that the management committee did not act soon or decisively enough – and if so, the lack of experience is probably at fault.

I also get the impression that people are positioning themselves to deflect blame, should the fingers be pointed their way. It is pretty obvious that there is a well-orchestrated social media and press campaign under way to protect certain major players. I may be wrong, After all, I am a mere unqualified bystander. But the spider-senses are tingling…

All this, no doubt, shall be canvassed at the (hopefully) public enquiry. Let’s hope that there will not have be an enquiry into the enquiry.

The disaster and all its implications – which go back well beyond the immediate event – has certainly done wonders for one sector of the jobs market … they’re putting on scores of new staff down at the white wash factory to handle the demand.

But surely, Cushion Stuffer, you wish for an inquiry is already up and running … wasn’t it said somewhere that Anna Alphabet was appointing some folks to an independent, fair and balanced inquiry … just like she did for the Black Throated Finch? And as iditor Jenna Cairney squeaked recently while pointing the finger, that is not the time to point the finger.

Surely with all the hoped-for recovery money – not just for Townsville and its discrete problem, but also those poor bastards in the bush – there should be a federal level HOLISTIC inquiry into the whole set of inter-connected questions, looming large among them climate change, (and also the Murray Darling debacle). The final matter brings The ‘Pie to ask a question he has pondered but has found no answer to … did any of the flood water reach the southern-headed river system as a welcome flushing of the drained and de-oxygenated rivers, or did it all go back into the Gulf?

Hill was repeatedly proclaiming at pressers the manual was not being used and decisions on gate heights were being made by her committee. Only the final coup de grace of all 3 gates at 10m was “automatic” (the gates somehow being sentient and not simply programmed – an all too obvious ploy to avoid any blame).

The use of locals, well the Mullet should be looking in the mirror before making tese statements, aftet all she brought all of her ALP mates from the NT and SA to council after the report and cull at council.
While on that Magpie one thing that always amazes me is the company that done the review on council which was followed by the Mullet and the Impaler appear to have escaped condenation, after all it was their report that was obviously a worthless badly written report because the result has.not been good for Townsville ratepayers, the same ratepayers 6thay are paying for all of this crap and the Mullets brain farts.
Do they have a connection to the ALP or the LGAQ’s Local Buy the mullet is involved in?

Nous certainly has Labor connections, it would be highly doubtful, nigh on impossible, that Jenny Hill would not use a politically sympathetic group to put the details onto what was clearly her own idea. And it seems that a Nous executive tapped the hardly qualified Labor head-kicker Adele Young to apply for the job as Chief High Executioner having both worked together in South Australia for the Labor Party. And all the actions recommended and followed by The Impaler dovetail with the gradually emerging grand designs of the LGAQ. However, that said, it was a smart move to appoint a group that was not only physically distant (in Melbourne), but also a couple places removed from any accountability … “What, me, sir? I was just asked to write a report, not implement it, all theoretical as far as I’m concerned’ … would be the get out of jail card. So the Nous report was written by some desiccated sucked-dry moral metrosexual prunes with a penchant for Third Reich brutality and uncaring indifference to small community reality. This also fits in with the LGAQ agenda.

Watch out for that LGAQ connected Propel crowd, standing in the wings waiting for the keys to yet another council coffer.

The Pie is on the money !. Propel Partnerships ( LGAQ) have been coming in and taking Council back of house payroll, rates notices, customer service etc further distancing them from their ratepayers and reducing local jobs . Conflict of interest Mayor Mullet as a director of LGAQ . What does T.C.C . get for the $300,000 paid to LGAQ ?.

Mike, obviously the 300k gets Mullets seat at the top table, err, the Mullets seat, or hell you know what I mean………Anything beyond that is unclear and a mystery to us mug ratepayers! Does that surprise you?

Last Friday 16th Feb, I was catching the 3.45pm ferry home from town. I noticed that stuck to the glass door of the exit to the ferry was a printed notice saying ‘Residents of Townsville; Boil your drinking water’ with a graphic of a kettle.

Does this apply only to the flood-affected areas? Or do us Maggie Islanders have to do the same? I’ve just viewed TCC web page and can find nothing about drinking water. Does anyone know?

Patience, m’boy, patience … The ‘Pie believes there were one or two movements about the place, with at least two people ‘considering the position’ and deciding when to announce a run … then the current situation arose, and both (and anyone else) appear to be following Sun Tzu’s Art Of War advice : Never interrupt your enemy when she is making a mistake. Let the four gals, Jenny, Jenna, Jackie and Anna have their little factional ducking and weaving, and take the time to take full advantage of any candidates biggest weapon … Jenny’s own mouth. Gives prospective candidates time to put more thought into a team, a strategy and a policy platform.

But someone will need to do something soon, the Astonisher is already crying out for a go-to person opposing the mayor for comment on various issues. Look at the run the Federal LNP candidate for Herbert is getting.

Could the paper mount an argument that they are not as fair and balanced as they could be about council matters because of the lack of someone to ask, someone willing to pop their head above the parapet? It would be just like their cheek, you’d reckon.

Indeed Pie, I think to give the Mullet a bit more rope may not be such a bad thing in light of recent events. Bob Manning never officially announced as a Mayoral candidate for Cairns until January 2012 and trounced prize pinko airhead Val Shiers in spectacular fashion. If nothing else out of these floods I have managed to convince my loony Labor in laws that Jenny Hill is completely fucken jinxed and not one single thing of any good will happen whilst she is in charge of the place. They are of Chinese decent so I advised them she gives out clocks as presents and each one breaks and stops dead on 4 o”clock, she won’t be getting the Chinese vote.

Seems to me a new mayoral candidate would want to steer clear of arguments about the water supply, flood mitigation and ‘wot-the-other-mob-dun’, and open up a new front altogether. Maybe a new focus on town planning and community development connected to some sort of pragmatism about climate change and energy and water efficiency – stuff that townspeople are actually capable of engaging with. For example, what’s happening with Townsville’s recycling? We know the whole state (if not country) has been castrated by the sudden cancellation of China as a place to forget about garbage and recycling. Well, what is our local government doing, or going to do, about it? Let’s look ahead for some new publicly developed policy, keeping in mind that there is a fair likelihood of ALP governments at federal and state levels.

Just a bit off the mark NMD, now that your mates in the state Labor government have commenced with their new $1.3B waste management tax, sorry levy, is anybody paying for all the flood related rubbish, or was that another thought bubble worked out on the back of a postage stamp?

Old Tradie, I’ve told you before that I voted AGAINST Palaszczuk in the last state election and if the latest coal shenanigans of the CFMMEU are anything to go by, I’ll be putting Labor last in the next state election. But that’s ages away. Right now in the face of a federal election it’s hard to see any reason to put a Liberal anywhere but last – or maybe second last. I do want to save a big number for Clive if he’s on the ballot paper.

Cantankerous, so there you go. You learn something new every day. A couple of federal elections ago I voted for Ewan. Can you believe it? I’m not stuck in a groove old mate. My vote is up for grabs – I’ll make up my mind on the day. Although I have to say, any moron, even Pauline, would be better value than fuckin’ Morrison and Dutton at the moment. I mean, really, local Liberals make my skin crawl these days.

Aitkenvale flooded because the levee bank at the end of Thompson Street onto River Parade was remove when the end subdivision was done
look at the old 1988+ photographs which show the levee
Dam water topped the Parade and flowed across River Parade and into Millard Avenue and the rest of Aitkenvale
perhaps Slater and Gordon should investigate the background to who gave the approval for this stupidity

One of the first things this council should do as a result of this disaster is to re-instate the levy bank at the end of Thompson St.
After all, they allowed the removal of the original levy at the developers request.

RE: The Levee Bank at the end of Thompson Street.
I have an aerial photo of the levee bank at the end of Thompson St downloaded from the QImagery website. It stands out like a turd in a punchbowl That subdivision was developed by the Tapiolas’ (Parkside) The water got quite high there, but not as high as it did for those poor bastards living behind in Millard Avenue. I am a surveyor and I know how high the water got at my place (In Thompson St). I might check out high it was down on River Parade. As for the councils 1 in 500 year event. There was a reason why that levee bank was built.

Hardly … it’ll be stacked with southern ‘we know best’ experts … hey, maybe Nous will get a double gig out of all this. And the cherrry on top of this mud pie … Messagebank Walker appears to have some role.

The second document is well worth filing away (The ‘Pie has), it is necessary (one supposes) document, but one’s heart sinks when the bureaucratic babble runs to 40 or so pages, with heaps of those graphs and charts so beloved of shiny bum boffins. but the first is a waste of space, it openly admits it just prints news releases mostly, or stories IT believes to be fair and balanced etc etc blah blah blah. No comment or opinion, they say, which would make for a great spoof of their take on world events past and present ‘Banks are just fine, says government’, ‘Nazis not targeting Jews: Adolf’). The sort of stuff the Astonisher publishes about Adani. Mirage is based in Wollongong. News Corpse is based in Sydney.

ABC Radio earlier today (no link avail) Little Patti announcing that she is leading a delegation of Mayors and community leaders to Canberra to demand more assistance with everything from the flood to jobs, mining, infrastructure, etc.

Some of the females going must be in need of some retail therapy in the big smoke, cause didn’t they just recently have a junket to Canberra for the same thing? Images of Oliver, “Can I please have some more”.

Retail therapy in Canberra Mangrove??? Don’t get our much mate?? Only thing available and on special in Canberra is wrung out and tired politicians, some who can’t wait for the election date to be announced so they can retire and get their hands on ‘the lump sum’.
With an election due shortly this trip would seem to be a waste of time and money – those who can action anything have already ‘visited us’ and are waving their magic wands as we ‘speak’!

Can’t help but feel sorry for our graziers out west after the latest devastation. Many, and I suspect even the Pie, will take shots at me, but will there be any upside ? Our friend Maj Gen Stuart Smith is heading up the recovery. He did a stunningly great job with reducing our juvenile crime in Townsville. Possible that this may be more up his alley, as he can just give orders out to the Army and other services and they will carry them out.

Completely baffled as to why anyone … especially The ‘Pie … would take exception to your comment. For the record, The ‘Pie doesn’t. For the record, the old bird was born on a cattle station, and knows full well the devastation and genuine grief our western people are going through … only people with a genuine connection to the land can understand.

Another victim of the recent weather is the recently refurbished Civic Theatre, which is so badly damaged, productions running into April are being cancelled.
Will the Council be pursuing Hutchinson Builders for the repair cost?

I for one would be in favour of a “Temporary Flood Reconstruction Levy” as was done back in 2011 for the flooding caused by Yasi. This could be used to assist the graziers that lost so much cattle in restocking and purchasing decent breeding stock and infrastructure. I don’t know why we don’t have a levy ongoing to the tune of quarter % to assist for disasters nationally. Isn’t this what we pride ourselves on ? We pull together as a nation to help our fellow aussies.

Good luck with that Dutchy, tight arsed Australians wouldn’t even pay $5 to go to the doctor.
Wouldn’t it be better simply fund some digging up of a few billion tonnes of Earth to create big holes in the ground to store the water, the dirt excavated could be used to make high points of ground for stock to wait out the wet, we just go round and round in circles in this country.

It appears Thuringowa MP Aaron Harper has a different view of what his responsibilities are and what he is paid to do as he says “ it was wrong to wedge Politicians in the Adani Project approval process “. Aaron’s electorate has the highest crime rate in Townsville and he doesn’t see a link of why business are moving out and drop in property prices in the area because of high crime rates ? . Townsville deserves better .

It will be interesting to see who the masters of the Labor Party are, now that the M part of the CFMEU have said that they will campaign against ALP members and candidates in QLD who don’t put their hand up in support of Adani and the bigger Galilee Basin.
Do they keep their union masters happy, or do they keep bending over backwards to appease the would be Green voters?

While on the subject of ‘the tool’
If you try and park your vehicle on the side of the road with a for sale sign on it, the Transport Department will come down on you like a ton of bricks. So how come she can have her pantec truck parked near Nathan St bridge.
Doesn’t she know that vehicles like that are still needed for the cleanup.
One week of assistance is not good enough COT!

You are quite correct. And the fact that the Commonwealth has no objection to sea dumping inside the Marine Park down near Hay Point invites the question: Why can’t Townsville port’s maintenance dredging spoil be dumped in deeper water (~20m) outside Cleveland Bay instead of the relatively shallow (~10-11m) site inside the bay currently used? The GBRMPA must have the capability to investigate the environmental issues around such questions but seems to lack the will or perhaps the political nous and integrity to seek solutions to Magnetic Island’s and Cleveland glaringly obvious sediment pollution issues.

Wonder what the Astionisher will do this?
The paper keeps calling on others to declare their stand on various issues, but perhaps iditor Cairney could drop the mimsy, skittish fence sitting and declare where she stands on the issue of climate change … but oh dear, that would of course involve coal. C’mon, dearie, only take a single phone call to Sydney to find out what your opinion is.

Read Guy Rundle in Crikey today responding to the Cormann air fares-gate with a view which would liven up the TBully if only:

“We now have a fundamental asymmetry in Australian politics. One major political party, Labor, capable of government; one minor, the Greens, with some internal strife, but no accusations of rorting. And on the other side something that is neither a Coalition, nor parties at all. It’s simply a random, rhizomatic piss cloud of sleaze, grift, incompetence, reactionary obsessiveness, glued together by nothing other than hatred not merely of the left, but of good government itself, and an eye for the skim off the top.”

Ah, Mr Rundle, great writer, terrific turn of phrase … if only he didn’t have such a selective memory that conveniently forgets the ever present threat to Labor being able to govern fairly or effectively – the factions ruled by unions. Not that he is wrong in his summations of the LNP, it just is a great piss-off when such an intelligent person sneers at the intellect of his readers (left wing though Crikey adherents mostly are).

Old Tradie, you don’t get it, do you? Political parties ebb and flow. They don’t have principles, morals or ethics. You have to like it or lump it. If you know your candidate is going to lose, I mean really lose, perhaps you’re backing the wrong horse? Do you make the (personal, financial, emotional, political) investment anyway, even knowing it’s going down the toilet? I put my cards on the table. You say nothing relevant. I don’t think you have the faintest idea.

Yes, we were similar but ours was water skiing, about 20-30 of us would take a few ski boats over to the coast and set up camp for a couple of weeks each Xmas at a caravan park at Chinderah right on the banks of the Tweed, tie our boats up right outside the tents, ski in the morning before the wind got up and then drink all afternoon, Tooth’s Old myself. The beer doesn’t exist anymore and I think the caravan park is long gone.

You got that right Grumpy. That and the already $1.5 billion damage bill from North Queensland (before Oma arrives). Me thinks the Treasurer is having a few sleepless nights.
How on earth are they going to keep recruiting pointless public servants if they have to fix infrastructure??

Shop local they say, sounds good in theory but after spending the last 2 days out and about looking for furniture and household goods to replace what we have lost I spent a total of $539 on inside goods and $780 on a new mower, still leaving me about $35, 000 to spend. Everything we found in stores in this town it was all 8,10,12 weeks away, maybe more, I can sort of live with that, but then each store wanted a disgraceful $80-$100 delivery fee to run an item 15mins across town, I can get gear delivered from Brisbane for less than that, what a disgrace, needless to say the manager of domestic finance and myself are heading off to Brisbane for a weekend of shopping, businesses in Townsville need to have a long hard look at themselves and realise the reasons they are closing one after another.

Fair crack of the whip, CBH! Having driven around and seen what’s to be collected and eventually replaced, it’s pretty obvious that no business could afford to keep in stock the volumes of furniture and whitegoods etc needed “just in case there’s a catastrophe”. The storage (how many years?) costs would have to be added to the stock cost, and the interest on tied-up capital… you don’t have to be in business to see the problem. Have you discussed their problems with any of the closed or closing businesses, CBH?

Acknowledged Mike, and I did write that the delivery delays I can cop, to a point, but when I can buy the same thing from down south and they can deliver in a couple of weeks one has to ask why the stores here want to take 8-10 weeks, and then they want $100 to deliver a lounge from Domain to Hermit Park, they are seriously taking the piss.

Cantankerous, I’d wait a couple of days before jetting to BrisVegas with your cheque. If Oma gets there before you you may find half the town’s furniture and hardware spread all the way to Wivenhoe Dam and waiting for the gates to open so it can be delivered back down the river at no cost. Just a thought.

Channel 7 local news this evening with the three state ALP members covering themselves in crap again – it is really embarrassing to watch their antics! O’Rort (state ‘member’) quite rightly getting savaged by Aitkenvale residents over ‘high-rise’ housing for youth offenders in Elizabeth St (bail houses anyone – didn’t they work a treat- NOT)! She says there was consultation, the large crowd of residents say there was not – who to believe- well, the residents actually!

Then there was a clip of Private Cupcake (Townsville state seat ‘member’) and Harpic (Thuringowa) dressed in high viz shirts following the Housing Minister (?) around and into a stage managed house repair – hey Private and Harpic, playing dress ups is a preschool thing – trying to pass yourselves off as tradies is an insult and shows us ‘you got nothing’, but we knew that already………how plucking embarrassing!

Listening to our local news tonight with the Mullet, the TEL idiot, the Airport idiot, and a few other hanger ons trying the political bulshit about trying to get funds for flood damage.
All they talked about is Federal dollars and help but not a mention about State dollars and help.
Then they mentioned one item the repair of the rail line ti Mt Isa.
Isnt QR a state identity, and I would have thought the State might have been a bit more on our side, but wait are they broke.
The sooner we get rid of our current bunch of fn useless local all levels of government the better Townsville will be.

LOCAL TRADIES?
Just have a walk around and observe the “locals” working on the bullshit stadium. The only thing local about the influx is they are living here until their contract finishes.
Just more political hype with NO substance and we are expected to take them seriously.

Not sure if this has been said here before, but you have to spare a thought for poor old Tony Mooney, the radiance is waning and his selfless efforts come to nothing. What rotten luck … For ages, he sought the right candidate to fill a spot on the Townsville Hospital Board, of which he is chairman. Someone with the know how, background, deeply embedded in our community and with a sincere love of serving the people. The long search ended when Mrs Beckett aka Shayne Sutton happened on the scene, following her hubby Stephen north when they sought the bright lights of Townsville over the dimming prospects in Brisbane. Being the selfless apolitical creature that she is, Shayne readily accepted the Mooney plea to take a board seat, laughing off as inconsequential that the Mooney money offer was only pin money at $44k per year for half a dozen meetings. Now, with hubby heading off to parts unknown, seems Ms Sutton will again trail along, making do as well as a Labor apparatchik can in this hostile world, but ever ready to help yet another struggling community.

Donkey is mostly correct, Mrs Beckett was appointed as executive officer to NQROC which is a position created at TCC for her. One assumes so she could get exposure across the region to further her political career.

Beckett, the Screaming Midget, affectionately known by some staff as Lord Farquad, has a distaste for Townsville and Townsvillians. He never outgrew his childhood temper tantrums and has very nasty case of small man syndrome. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

You might find she was/is actually the CEO of the North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils (RED-ROC) – so yet another high-powered position like the Hospital Board – managing tea and biscuits for a few meetings of mayors each year. A tough job, but someone (well politically connected) has to do it.

Interestingly, unless I have gone blind, there no longer seems to be much of a digital trace of the organisation.

The ‘Pie has been privately informed that Jenny Hill, who is also an LGAQ board member ($95k per ta moochly) created the position last year … it did not exist beforehand. It would appear that the council’ well known culture of secrecy has now ‘de-created’ it, because there’s no trace anywhere about it. Whatever the pay was, it was Townsville ratepayers footing the bill. This was such a blatant rort.

NQROC hasn’t gone anywhere. It had no online presence to start with. You will find reverence to it online sometimes as well as RED-ROC which is the Regional Economic Development Regional Organization of Councils

I want to know if Sutton ever got the job on the TAFE board she applied for.

Maybe this extra layer of dross is still around, no doubt costing ratepayers across the region some hard earned dough for FA retrurn, but the question now is, is Shayne Sutton still with us? It is reasonable to believe (hoped) that ever since hubby Stephen the Screaming Midget Beckett tossed the rattle out of the pram thus getting himself also ejected by Big Mama Mullet, that the Beckett’s would act on their well known disdain and dislike forn all things Townsville and fuck off to infest somewhere else where they could gouge a morally dishonest dollar or two.

Alahazbin, the flood only has me reaching for some point lower than the bottom. Katherine Murphy captured it for me in the Guardian today:

“It suggests that at least some of the current crop of [federal] parliamentarians view themselves predominantly as partisans with knuckledusters – a bunch of freewheeling bros knocking back 15 beers at the uni bar before giving each other wedgies and heading out for a wider rampage – rather than the custodians of the institution of democratic politics.”

On approaching the local shops I was stopped by folks at the door wearing ‘Community Recovery’ shirts and asked if I was here during the flood. Having said I was, I was informed that I was entitled to $180.00 recovery grant.

I explained in words of one syllable that the house suffered no damage to speak of, I suffered no loss of income and experienced only mild inconvenience. I was fortunate. I was told no matter, I was still eligible for the loot. I declined.

Sure, assist those in need, but, I bloodywell object to my tax payers dollars being given to folks not in need. It is a gross miss-direction of funds, and I suspect it is the government (not sure what level) trying to purchase goodwill.

Those journos down at the Astonisher really know their local stuff.
The paper’s online edition today has a headline “NQ Cowboys name new chief executive”. But the photo is not of new CEO Jeff Reibel. Its former player and new Chief Operating Officer Michael Luck.
Still I suppose they could have run a pic of departed CEO Greg “tosser” Tonner.

Yup they know who’s who and what’s what in sport down at the Astonisher. In fact, their photo caption writer knows more than even the members of the distressed Townsville Golf Club know. But seems the secret’s out.
Owner? Bet he’s glad he isn’t!

Gotta love when our local representatives are backed into a corner about supporting their constituents and doing their job . Cathy Otoole is now claiming credit in the Astonisher for Townsville’s securing fifo with Adani . Courier Mail gives Aaron Harper the thumbs down for getting stroppy about being asked pesky questions about his position on Adanis Carmichael Mine . Poor Aaron reckons journalists are trying to wedge him . I think a lot of his constituents would like to wedge him .

MD, the reason Townsville got the FIFO nod from Adani was on the promise of $18.5 million dollars to pay for their airport which Townsville would not own despite the reports to the contrary and the statements in council chambers to get the votes.
So is Cathy now saying she is responsible for this?
Is she saying she committed to funds to pay for this?
Is she saying she misled both the Councillors and the Townsville public on this issue?
Skating on very thin ice here.

The last 12 months have shown just how useless the elected officials and the so called leaders are, Our so called Mayor and her team of ?????, OToole, ORourke, Harper, Stewart, Gill, O’Callaghan have totally screwed over Townsville.
Anyone that votes for any of our current elected officials obviously has blinkers on and do not not care about our City.

Now would seem like the perfect moment for any or all of the alternative candidates in Herbert, Kennedy etc. to take up the challenge offered by this curious political balancing act. It’s all very well us immortals debating the hopelessness of the local Labor Party here in our mancave with witless inputs from the TBully but where is the Liberal or the National or the Katter candidate? If they won’t speak up now do we assume the cat has got their tongue?

I noticed the comments yesterday from O’Toole and mullet in townsville bulletin. Both quoted as saying “the goal post keeps getting moved “. O’Toole hasn’t really kicked anything near a goal post in 3 yrs to make a claim for a start. And the mayor to make the same quote should be careful because maybe the posts have been moved to stop hiding the 22 million dollars that was gifted to tcc by the state government without any applicantion for so called shovel ready projects only 18mths ago. This is something that a future mayor might consider taking note of when announcing the run. Oh but this is getting exciting to watch labour start killing each other. And they want more women in parliament, look at this lot go at it. Maybe it’s the “GAOL POSTS” that have been moved

OK citizen journalists … anyone know …. AS IN KNOW, NOT BELIEVE, THINK OR BET … about this from a Magpie mate who generally gets good info … but he also says he has only heard about this from within his usually well informed circle, but does notm personally know the truth or otherwise of it. So The ‘Pie puts it out there. not for further comment but for verification if anyone has some.

“Getting reports / rumour that the sewerage pipe near Bunnings exploded, destroyed the road and effluent spread into the 2 lakes. Also that floor in Bunnings sank by a foot, caused irreparable damage and will be demolished. Going further, because it is tilt-up, the shopping centre is also a possible demolition. The sewerage has caused the beaches to be closed? Maybe too long a bow.”

I have been working at the Bunnings Fairfield starting when the water receded and we could get in and make safe and apply a generator. There is no indication at all that the floor has sunk, and no sewerage smell. A new switchboard is being built for it, due in a couple of weeks, there is no way they are demolishing Bunnings Fairfield.

Sounds like your mate is winding you up, Pie.
“Exploding sewer and a building that size sinking a foot…..”, please!
I have good info that Bunnings Fairfield will be back on line early March….
The shopping centre / homemaker centre a different story by the sounds. ‘Exploding sewer’ might be a good analogy.

No he wasn’t, he didn’t try to suggest it was fact just something The ‘Pie might want to check out. Glad he put it like that, and glad that we did. And given all the other things that go on in this town, not an outlandish possibility. But it isn’t so, and glad to report same.

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